EU-AFRICA: Strengthening a Sustainable Partnership

Event Sections

Europe and Africa have historical, cultural and geographical ties. As Africa’s main trading partner, the EU continues to promote local economic integration by African countries as a means of boosting growth, attracting investment in different sectors and improving services for the African continent’s population.

Ten years after the adoption of the Joint Africa Europe Strategy in Lisbon, the dynamics have changed. Because relations between the two continents are very complex, the political and policy dialogue is critical to strengthening the partnership.

POLITICO’s EU-AFRICA series seeks to explore mutually beneficial solutions to current EU-Africa migration and security challenges; to assess the implementation of the EU financial plans for Africa; to examine the role of European companies in digitalizing the African continent; and to host conversations that will enable both continents to advance a low carbon economy, strengthen the cooperation on care and food security.

The premiere event ‘EU-AFRICA: Strengthening a Sustainable Partnership’ will kick off POLITICO’s EU-Africa series and explore mutually beneficial solutions to current EU-Africa migration and security challenges. It will also assess the implementation of the EU financial plans for Africa.

Leading Questions:

What steps can be taken to manage the flow of migrants from Africa to the EU?

Migration from Africa to the EU has been constant for years. Several factors – poverty, governmental instability, violence - have been the root cause of the flow of migrants.

What are the greatest challenges to ensuring an effective cooperation between the Member States and African countries?

What steps can be taken to manage the flow of migrants from Africa to the EU?

Ana Palacio, Council of State of Spain, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Dimitris Avramopoulos, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship

Ajay Bramdeo, Ambassador and Head of the African Union Permanent Mission to the European Union and the ACP

Catherine Woollard, Secretary General, European Council on Refugees and Exiles

10:10 AM CET

Coffee break

10:40 AM CET

One-to-One Interview (video)

Marco Minniti, Minister of the Interior, Italy

11:00 PM CET

Panel 2 – Implementing the EU financial plans for Africa

Doing business with and in Africa, as well as seeing Africa as a trade partner and an investment opportunity, is part of an important European policy shift. If implemented, this shift could help African countries strike agreements with the EU which increase economic opportunities in Africa.

How to mobilize private investment in Africa?

What are European institutions doing to foster business in Africa?

What kind of development model shall Africa embrace?

Neven Mimica, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development

Pascal Agboyibor, Partner and Head of Africa Practice, Orrick

Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Alain Ebobissé, CEO, Africa50

12:00 PM CET

End of Event

Speakers

Marco Minniti, Minister of the Interior, Italy

Marco Minniti is the Minister of the Interior of Italy, a position he has held since 2016. Previously, Minniti served as Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, a delegated authority responsible for national security, in both cabinets of former Prime Ministers Renzi and Letta from 2013 to 2016. From 2009 to 2013, he was founder and Chair of the security, defense and intelligence think tank Intelligence, Culture and Strategic Analysis Foundation (ICSA). Minniti also served as Vice Minister of the Interior from 2006 to 2008, Secretary of State for Defense from 2000 to 2001, Minister of State at the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for Intelligence Services from 1999 to 2000, and Secretary of State to the Prime Minister from 1998-1999. During the Kosovo conflict, Minniti served as Coordinator of the Inter-ministerial Committee for the Reconstruction of the Balkan region between 1998 and 1999. He is a graduate in Philosophy from the University of Messina, Italy.

Ana Palacio, Council of State of Spain, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Ana Palacio serves on the Council of State of Spain, the supreme consultative body to the Spanish Government on legislation and regulation. She is also the founding partner of Palacio y Asociados, a law firm specializing in European and International Law, and arbitration. Previously, Palacio served as a member of the Advisory Group on Foreign Affairs and Security from 2010 to 2014, an advisor to the European Commission on Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship from 2010 to 2012, and a member of the Executive Committee and Senior Vice-President for International Affairs of AREVA. She was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank Group, as well as Secretary-General of the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes from 2006 to 2008. Palacio served in the Spanish Parliament and chaired the Joint Committee of the two Houses for European Union Affairs from 2004 to 2006. In 2002, Palacio became the first woman to serve as Foreign Affairs Minister of Spain. Between 1994 and 2002, she was a Member of the European Parliament where she chaired the Legal Affairs and Internal Market Committee; the Citizens Rights, Justice and Home Affairs Committee; as well as the Committee of Committee Chairs. Currently, Palacio is a visiting professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, serves on the Executive Board of The Atlantic Council of the United States and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship

Dimitris Avramopoulos is the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship since 2014. Prior being appointed European Commissioner, Avramopoulos held several high-level positions in the Greek government. He was Minister of National Defense of Greece from 2013 to 2014, after previously serving the same position from 2011 to 2012. He also served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2013. Prior to that, Avramopoulos was Minister of Health and Social Solidarity from 2006 to 2009, and Minister of Tourism Development from 2004 to 2006. He was also elected Mayor of Athens from 1995 to 2002. Avramopoulos served in the Diplomatic Service of Greece from 1980 until 1993. He hold a degree in Public Law and Political Sciences from the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens and a postgraduate degree in International Organization from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Neven Mimica, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development

Neven Mimica is the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, a position he has held since 2014. Previously, Mimica was European Commissioner for Consumer Policy under the Barroso Commission. Prior to that, he was Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia from 2011 to 2013, responsible for Internal, Foreign and European policy. Between 2008 and 2011, Mimica was the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the European Integration Committee in the Croatian Parliament, after serving as Chairman of the European Integration Committee from 2003 to 2007. Formerly, he served as Minister for European Integration from 2001 to 2003, and as Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs and Chief Negotiator for the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union from 2000 to 2001. Mimica was in the diplomatic service of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia from 1987 to 1997. He holds a BA in Foreign Trade and a MA in Economics from the University of Zagreb.

Pascal Agboyibor, Partner, Member of the Board and Head of Africa Practice, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Pascal Agboyibor is a Partner in the Paris office of the international law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, a position he has held since 2003. Furthermore, Agboyibor is a Member of the Board and heads Orrick’s Africa practice, which specializes in advising complex projects in the oil, gas, power, mining and agriculture sectors. He is a member of Orrick’s Energy and Infrastructure Group as well as the European Management Group. Agboyibor’s experience in Africa and expertise covers both significant project financings and merger and acquisition transactions for international and domestic financial institutions, commercial banks, and investors, as well as manufacturers, power producers and industrial suppliers. In 2016, Agboyibor was ranked among the top 50 best French lawyers by Law and Financial Magazine Décideurs in addition to be recognized at one of the top 10 innovative lawyers of 2014 by the Financial Times. He started his legal career with Jeantet Associés from 1993 to 2000, and joined Watson, Farley & Williams from 2000 to 2002.

Ajay Bramdeo, Ambassador, African Union Permanent Representation to the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific

Ajay Bramdeo is the Ambassador of African Union Permanent Representation to the European Union and Observer to the African, Caribbean and Pacific, a position he has served since 2012. Previously, Ambassador Bramdeo held the rank of Chief Director Africa Multilateral in the South African Foreign Service, responsible for the Southern African Development Community, New Partnership for Africa’s Development, African Union, and South Africa Peace Missions from 2009 to 2011. He also served as South Africa’s High Commissioner to Mauritius with non-resident accreditation to Seychelles from 2004 to 2008. Prior to that, Ambassador Bramdeo was Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Head of Mission from 2002 to 2003 and Counsellor from 1996 to 2000 at the South African Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He completed his diplomatic training with the South African Foreign Service in 1995.

Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Isabelle Durant is the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), a position she has held since July 2017. Previously, Durant was a member of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region from 2014 to 2017, and served as a Senior Expert on Local Governance in Algeria in 2015. In 2009, Durant was elected Member of the European Parliament where she served as Vice-President until 2014. She was also a member of the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. From 2003 to 2009, Durant was a member of the Belgian Senate, after having served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Energy from 1999 to 2003. She holds a MSc in Economic and Social Policy from Universite Catholique de Louvain.

Alain Ebobissé, CEO, Africa50

Alain Ebobissé, a Cameroon national, is the Chief Executive Officer of Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure investment platform capitalized by the African Development Bank, 25 African countries and two African Central Banks. Ebobissé has held the position since 2016. Previously, he served as the Global Head for the World Bank Group’s Global Infrastructure Project Development Fund “IFC InfraVentures”, and as Chief Investment Officer in the Global Infrastructure and Natural Resources Department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, from 1998 to 2016. Prior to that Ebobissé held several positions in the financial services industry in France, including Deputy Head of Project and Structured Finance at Caisse des Depots et Consignations, based in Paris. He holds a MBA from the International School for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Catherine Woollard, Secretary General, European Council on Refugees and Exiles

Catherine Woollard is Secretary General of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, a position she has held since 2016. Previously, Woollard was the Executive Director of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office, a Brussels-based network working on conflict prevention and security, from 2008 to 2015. Prior to that, she was Director of Policy and Communications at Conciliation Resources for a year following her tenure as Senior Program Coordinator at Transparency International from 2004 to 2006. Woollard is currently a member of the Democratic Progress Institute's Council of Experts and of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Roster of Experts on Mediation and Dialogue. Her recent geographic experience includes assignments in Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Ivory Coast and the Philippines. She holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and was a PhD Candidate at the European University Institute’s Department of Social and Political Science.

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Sponsors

Presenting Sponsor

Eni

Eni is a multinational energy company. Our 33,000 men and women operate in 73 countries around the globe. We are working to build a future where everyone can access energy resources efficiently and sustainably. Innovation is key for our work. We have been investing to become a digital leader in the energy industry, making our operations more efficient and reliable, integrating new technology and digitalization at all levels. Our Green Data Centre hosts HPC4, one of the most powerful industrial-scale supercomputer in the world, which enables us to run millions of billions of operations per second.

Opening Remarks by Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Officer, Eni

Claudio Descalzi is the Chief Executive Officer of Eni, a position he has held since 2014. Previously, Descalzi was Chairman of Eni UK from 2010 to 2014, and Chief Operating Officer in the Exploration & Production Division from 2008 to 2014. He was appointed Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the Exploration & Production Division from 2005 to 2008, after having served as Executive Vice President for Italy, Africa, Middle East from 2002 to 2005. Prior to that, Descalzi was Executive Vice President for Africa, Middle East and China. He was appointed Managing Director of Eni’s subsidiary in Congo in 1994, and later became Vice President & Managing Director of Naoc, a subsidiary of Eni in Nigeria from 1998 to 2000. Descalzi joined Eni in 1981 as an Oil & Gas field petroleum engineer, and then became project manager for the development of North Sea, Libya, Nigeria and Congo. He holds a degree in Physics from University of Milan and was awarded an Honorary Degree in Environmental and Territorial Engineering by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Rome, Tor Vergata in 2016. Currently, he is a Visiting Fellow at The University of Oxford.

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